Current Students
Moon Evans
Moon Evans is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Moon is a member of the Enright Forgiveness lab and her research focus is on the moral-virtue sense of forgiveness in children, and their social awareness (healthy emotional and social skills development).
Ashley Ezpeleta
Ashley Ezpeleta is a doctoral student in the Human Development area working with Dr. Haley Vlach in the Learning, Cognition, and Development Lab. Before starting graduate school, Ashley attended Miami University and received her B. A. in Psychology and a minor in Linguistics. She was also the lab manager for Dr. Edward Hubbard’s Educational Neuroscience Lab (also here at UW). Ashley’s current research interests lie in understanding how lower (e.g. biological)- and higher (e.g. meta)- memory processes influence young children’s language learning, with the goal of applying her work to educational settings.
Tingting Fan
Tingting Fan is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Tinging is interested in understanding how social media use may impact adolescents and young adults' well-being. Currently, she is working on projects investigating how college students' social media use impacts their mental health and social relationships during COVID-19 self-isolation.
Hui-Ru Ho
Hui-Ru is a doctoral student in Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. She is particularly interested in studying the relationship of multi-sensory integration and cognition. Moreover, she is looking forward to applying what she has learned in multi-sensory integration to education and improving user experience of technology in the future.
Pauline Ho
Pauline Ho is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research program broadly focuses on identity development in adolescence and emerging adulthood. In particular, she is interested in three key facets (timing, content, and process) of identity development and its impact on adolescent health and well-being.
Maria Katsikathas
Maria Katiskathas is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology and studying with Dr. Amy Bellmore. Maria is interested in examining adolescent peer relationships and educational outcomes through a sociocultural lens. She hopes her research will contribute to a deeper understanding of how teens’ social relationships and educational experiences, both in school and social media contexts, influence their social and emotional development.
Young Jin (Ginnie) Kim
Ginnie Kim is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology working with Dr. Sarah Short. She received her B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Science from University of Rochester. Prior to coming to UW-Madison, she worked as a full-time research assistant in a neuroimaging lab at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH. She continues to utilize neuroimaging at UW-Madison to explore the effects of early adverse experiences on children's brain development, academic achievement, and well-being. She is also affiliated with the Center for Healthy Minds and is excited to integrate her research with mindfulness program.
Melina Knabe
Melina Knabe is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. She works in the Learning, Cognition, and Development Lab with Dr. Haley Vlach. Her research interests lie in language and memory development of mono- and multilingual children.
Judith Korn
Judith Korn is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology and is advised by Dr. Robert Enright. Judith has a masters degree in both Clinical Psychology and Education. She has spent the last decade teaching math in the Madison area. Judith's research interests are in evaluating the effects of a well-designed SEL curriculum that incorporates moral development. She is particularly interested in the impact the study of forgiveness can have on mental health and in turn academic outcomes in our schools.
Pema Lhamo
Pema Lhamo is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research focuses on promoting the well-being of adolescents by studying the positive impacts of social competence skills. She is particularly passionate about exploring sustainable approaches to strengthen and build a compassionate community.
Yan Li
Yan Li is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research interest aims at understanding how to engage educational and cultural forces to promote virtue development, like the development of forgiveness.
Sam Macksey
Sam Macksey is a doctoral student in the area of Human Development within the Department of Educational Psychology. She works with Dr. Haley Vlach in the Learning, Cognition and Development Lab. Samantha received her B.A. in Psychology (minor in mathematical modeling of complex systems) from Northeastern Illinois University. Her research interests involve the examination of how children’s understanding of science and math can predict how likely they are to go into STEM careers. Her objective is to enhance the early-stage development of the educational system.
Nahlah Mandurah
Nahlah Mandurah is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology program under the supervision of Dr. Robert Enright. Nahlah received her bachelor degree in Kindergarten from Umm Al.Qura University in Saudi Arabia. In addition to the human development courses, she also did a field training teaching in school for a period of time. Throughout her bachelor program and field training, Nahlah has become interested in human development and how curriculum can promote the students’ psychological well-being.
Robby Quintana
Robby Quintana is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. He is working in the Mathematics Education and Learning Lab with Percival Matthews. Robby is interested in the relationship between spatial ability and mathematics.
Xiaoxu Rong
Xiaoxu Rong is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. She is interested how early adversity (e.g., poverty, maternal prenatal stress) plays a role in child brain development and cognitive ability development. Inspired by the experience of supporting children struggling with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. ADHD, autism), she hoped to learn more about the influences of early experiences on normal and abnormal brain development. In the long run, she aspires to get implications from research to help families build constructive rearing environments for children.
Xiangyun Tang
Xiangyun Tang is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research is concerned with parent-child and romantic partner technoference, and the buffering role of forgiveness play.
Yi Tong
Yi Tong is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. She is a member of the Learning, Cognition, and Development lab with Dr. Haley Vlach.
Priscilla Tovar-Perez
Priscilla Tovar-Perez is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Priscilla is part of Dr. Amy Bellmore’s research team, which focuses on school-based peer relationships during adolescence. Her current interests include the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on adolescent well-being and understanding how teens use social media to cope with stressful events.
Brooke Wollner
Brooke Wollner is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Robert Enright. Her research interests include historical trauma and human development in relation to crime.
Qi Zhang
Qi Zhang is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research interests include understanding the effect of forgiveness on mental health, and the role of forgiveness in family context.